Justification

The legitimate aspiration of those who inhabit the planet for finding a new period in the evolution of our societies that would allow us to overcome destructive or negative conflicts and consequently having violence in all its manifestations become an exceptional event in everyday life is further and further away from the reality where we are immersed.

From the uncontrollable increase of violence within the family with tragic outcomes such as the loss of life, through actions that threaten the environment, which has caused climate change that has already caused the extinction of species, all the way to armed movements, civil wars and between nations… we are in a world in which it is necessary to consolidate peaceful movements that contain and revert the aforementioned reality.

In every space where mediation has appeared, most of the conflicts have been solved but, above all, it has been verified that it is a method that produces changes in the protagonists of the conflict and, consequently, prevents violence. The experience working with this methodology has demonstrated that it is an effective way to create harmonious and peaceful coexistence.

Likewise, there is a consensus that all mediation currents are useful, either because they contribute to the solution of the conflict whether or not the partie parties experience any change in their conception of human relations, or the ones that make the involved parties of the dispute revalue and recognize that they are experiencing a growth that allows them to achieve moral development, or they find that the conflict approached from the notion of ‘us’ opens space so that they understand each other’s positive qualities and to develop their socio-cognitive abilities, which gives way to a positive perception of human relations where there is no space for attacks against the intrinsic dignity of our fellow human beings or violation of their fundamental rights, and instead the establishment of healthy and safe relationships as it happens in Associative Mediation.

Consequently, it is urgent to train an army of expert mediators to pacify all spaces of coexistence, particularly those where the personality of each human being such as the family, the school and the neighborhood are forged.

It is necessary that nations design public policies that approximate the practice of mediation to the spaces where destructive conflicts are born, since to make way to their deactivation it is indispensable that the institutions responsible for the socialization of human beings preserves and above all to comply with the mission entrusted by Constitutional, International Declarations and Treaties.

For twelve consecutive years the World Congresses have been the place where the advances of mediation and all those spaces where its application has been successful have been presented, which has allowed us to confirm that, independently of the characteristics of the personality of the parties and of the complexity of conflicts depending on the strategies implemented, it is feasible to approach them through dialogues facilitated by mediators.

Likewise, it has been found that it is possible to pacify critical spaces such as prisons - that often harbor dangerous criminals prone to use violence as an ordinary form of communication precisely because of the advantages of mediation in the approach and the creation of solution of all kinds to conflicts even those in exceptional situations and with the changes that have occurred in the times we live we rely on it as a method that prevents conflicts and improves human coexistence.

Lastly, we hope that this great event will bridge the gap between America and other regions of the world with the African Continent, through the exchange of experiences in the practice of mediation and its contribution to social change, which is indispensable for them to occur in objective conditions for each human being to develop fully.